2021 Volume 58 Issue 3 Pages 315-319
In a pediatric terminal cases, siblings’ hospital visitation strengthens family ties and helps them remember the moment when the hospitalized children are at home. However, it is also very stressful for bereaved siblings to experience a loss and to observe their sick sibling’s physical changes over the course of an illness. We have experienced a case in which we needed to make a controversial decision about siblings’ hospital visitation. The patient was a six-year-old girl who died due to acute myeloid leukemia. Through her treatment, her appearance changed considerably since the last time her siblings met her. Therefore, we were concerned that hospital visitation might lead to secondary PTSD and other psychological problems in the siblings in the future. Utilizing this case as a lesson, we reconsidered how our grief care should work and reformulated the guidelines about siblings’ hospital visitation.
